Go ahead and find your way to Hebrews chapter 13, verse 7. Hebrews 13, verse 7. I'm going to be reading the English Standard Version on this passage this morning, just because as I studied this week, I thought I had a little more clarity on this passage. Hebrews 13, verses 7 to 9. Remember your leaders. Those who spoke to you the word of God, consider the outcome of their way of life and imitate their faith. Jesus Christ is the same yesterday and today and forever. Do not be led away by diverse and strange teachings, for it is good for the heart to be strengthened by grace, not by foods which have not benefited those devoted to them. So, Lord, would You open every mind and every heart, give us clarity of hearing. Help us, Lord, in hearing Your Word to think about it. Our minds must be renewed, and they must be renewed by Your Word shaping them and teaching us how to see clearly. And then, Lord, through that Word which enters the ear into the mind, would You transform the heart that directs our thinking and feelings so that step by step we are conformed to the reality, the truth that you reveal here. For it is in Jesus we pray. Amen. We live in revolutionary times. Times where new ways of thinking and looking at the world proliferate. The result, you're probably aware, has been a lot of confusion, even about very basic things. For example, what does it mean to be male or female? How do you identify? Are you a man or a woman today? There used to be something that was really clear, fixed at birth by biology. It's a boy. It's a girl. Now we're told that it's something that is flexible and changeable, that it depends not on your biology but on your feelings at the moment. So you could identify as male one day and female the next or perhaps even something somewhere in between. So there's a lot of confusion in our culture. Having lost all objectivity, we've lost our hold on reality, and everything is now feelings. That's true of the culture at large, but sadly it has also become true of the church as well. For instance, what does it mean to be a Christian? Do you have to believe anything specific? And who gets to decide? Am I a Christian because I say that I am? Is it because I have certain feelings of religion? You know, I really like Jesus. I think He's cool and I like to post things about Him on Facebook. Is that all it takes? Or is there a reality here that I must take hold of? Is there something real I must believe and trust in? The writer here makes it very clear that there is something real here. He is exhorting us to take hold of this historic, biblical, unchangeable gospel. The gospel that was preached by the apostles and passed down to us through the faithful church. Because it is this gospel alone that points us to the objective truth about Christ. And so it is the gospel alone that can save us and secure us and give us life eternally in His name. And so we, Christian, must hold fast to this unchanging gospel and not let go of it. That's what we want to look at this morning. And so I'm going to give some exhortations from this passage that we need to take to heart and have our lives shaped by. The first exhortation is this. Christian, hold fast to the historic gospel as it's been proclaimed by faithful saints from the past. That's verse 7. Notice how he says that there in verse 7. He says, Remember your leaders, that is, those who spoke to you the word of God. those who spoke to you the word of God." Notice that's past tense. He's pointing to those who spoke to us formerly. And so the leaders he has in mind here are not just those leaders who are alive today. He's not just talking about Nevin and I here in this church. He's calling us to look back and remember the teaching of those faithful leaders of the past. Now, I don't think it's limited exclusively to those of the past, as I'm going to show you, but it certainly must begin there. Why? Well, it must begin there because the Christian faith is not a new thing. It didn't just show up last week, nor did it begin with Billy Graham in 1949. The faith we hold is ancient. It's been passed down to us from faithful men appointed by God. We call them apostles. And then carried down to us by generation after generation of other faithful men and women who held fast to the Word of God. Do you remember how the Apostle Paul exhorted Timothy to do that very thing? He said in 2 Timothy 2 verse 2, he said, "...the things which you have heard from me in the presence of many witnesses, entrust these to faithful men who will also be able to teach others." So take hold of what I've taught you, Timothy, pass it on unchanged to the next generation, and ensure that they will then do that in turn to the generation following that. The passing on of this truth. The biblical gospel, the saving gospel, is a historic message passed down through faithful hands. Jude describes it that way. In Jude verse 3, he calls it, the faith once for all handed down to the saints. Let me read that again. Jude verse 3, he says, this faith we believe is the faith once for all handed down to the saints. And so the writer here in Hebrews is calling us to look back and remember those faithful leaders who have taught us, those leaders who have been faithful to Christ, and we're to hear them, hear the message they preached and follow in their footsteps. In other words, don't let your faith be a wheel of the wisps, 21st century fantasy that is rooted in nothing more than the feelings of people today. Make sure that what you are holding to is this gospel that is anchored in the faithful teaching of those who have followed Christ throughout history. Make sure it is the faith that was held by the early church fathers, men like Polycarp and Irenaeus, on down to Augustine. Make sure that it is the faith of those who clung to it throughout the Middle Ages, and there were many who did that faithfully. And then that it is the same gospel that was powerfully recovered during the days of the Reformation with Luther and Calvin and Knox and these others. Make sure that the faith you are following is the one that is still being preached by faithful men who are in touch with these past ages of Christian faith, not trying to innovate or create something new that is more acceptable to the modern mind. Now with that in mind then, here's where this touches us now here at Rockport. So what kind of leaders must we have? What kind of leaders must we follow? And whether we're talking about faithful men of the past that we follow through their writings, or faithful leaders today who stand before us, what kind of men must we follow? Church, they must be gospel men. They must be men of the Word. Notice what he says here. First of all, he says that the leaders that we must remember, or keep in mind it means, pay attention to, are those who lead us faithfully by proclaiming the Word of God to us. Read it again there in verse 7. He says, Remember your leaders, and then he defines those leaders as those who spoke the Word of God to you. In the original, there's a really tight connection here between being a leader and speaking the Word of God. The way a godly leader leads you is by faithfully proclaiming the Word of God to you. You remember, that's what Paul urged Timothy to do. 2 Timothy 4 verse 2, he says, I charge you, Timothy, preach the Word. Timothy, preach the Word, in season or out of season, meaning whether it's popular or not, make sure that you preach the Word. Or Titus 1 verse 9, He says that the elder, the leader of the church, must hold fast the faithful word which is in accordance with the teaching or the faithful doctrine of the church. Do you understand? The only authority I have as pastor over anyone in this congregation, the only authority I have is the authority of God's Word. If what I say to you is faithful to the historic Word, then you are bound by that. You must obey it, not because I've said it, but because the Word has declared it. You must obey it or be in rebellion. But if what I say is not the Word, then you should feel free to ignore it. And if I'm continually unfaithful to give the Word, then you should get rid of me. Why? Because Christian leaders lead by virtue of the Word. If I lead you in faithfulness to Christ, that means I'm leading you by proclaiming Christ's Word. That's why I say again, in all sincerity, if Nevin or I or any other future leader of this church fails to be faithful to give you this historic, biblical Word centered on Christ, get rid of us. Don't hesitate, don't say, but I like him personally. No! Don't hold back. Dismiss us, because we are harming you. Second thing here, not only must you follow only those who are faithful to preach this word, but notice also, you must follow only those whose lives reflect this word. Notice how he goes on in verse 7, he says, and consider the outcome of their way of life, and imitate their faith. A man who preaches one thing and lives something else is not a faithful guide to follow. Now, that doesn't mean that our leaders must be perfect. Lord knows if we look for perfect leaders, we'll have no leaders at all. But it means that the life of a leader must be consistent with this word. Because that's what the church needs. It needs biblically faithful leaders. Why? Well, because integrity matters. And it matters above all in those who would lead you for Christ's sake. Because here's a fair question. Here's a question you ought to be asking of anyone who would lead you, anyone who would preach to you, anyone who would dare to teach you. What is the outcome of this teaching? If I follow what this teacher says and what he's doing, where will it lead me? Will it lead me to a greater love for Christ? Will it lead me into a deeper humility? Will it lead me into a more faithful obedience and joy in Christ? Well, what do I see if I look at his life? Again, not looking for perfection, but a definite Christ-like direction. If it's not there, if it's never been there, then why should I believe a thing He says? This is one of the damning things about the health, wealth and prosperity gospel. What has such teaching produced in those who proclaim it consistently again and again? Arrogance, selfishness, greed, sexual misconduct, Those are the fruits of the root of that theology. And so again, pay attention not only to the doctrines of those you would follow, but also to their lives that result from those doctrines. And again, I say that, church, with fear and trembling. I say that because I know all too well my own shortcomings. And it terrifies me sometimes. And yet my desire is to be consistent and faithful and sinner that I am to show somehow the power of this gospel as I'm brought again and again for my own need back to Christ and seeing Christ and trusting Christ. This is, by the way, why you need to pray for your leaders in this church. You need to pray that we would remain faithful and would walk with the Christ we proclaim, because that we, despite our sin and weakness, would be consistent in our walk with Christ as we declare these truths. Because we must be able to say, as Paul said in 1 Corinthians 11.1, be imitators of me just as I am also of Christ. That scares me to death. Nevin, does that scare you? Yet the writer of Hebrews says the same thing here in verses 7. He says, pay attention to the outcome of their way of life, see where their teaching goes, and then imitate their faith. Keep your eye on faithful leaders who preach the word and live lives consistent with that word and imitate their faith. Why? Because it's the living example of those who take these things to heart that is part of the teaching process. I have learned so much from godly men and women I've known whose lives were a faithful witness to the Christ they proclaimed. I'm so grateful over the years to many I could name. Some who died long ago that I've only known through their books. Others I've had the privilege of knowing face to face. but keep your eye on faithful, Word-centered leaders, and let them lead you into a deeper grasp on this historic Christian faith." That's what he's saying. Second, flowing out of that, he then says, "...and hold fast to Christ, who is the focus of this unchanging gospel." Look at verse 8. It almost seems like out of nowhere he says, Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, today, and forever. Now why does he suddenly blurt that out in the middle of this exhortation about what kind of leaders we ought to follow and have followed and remembering those leaders? Some people even think that he's changing the subject here somehow, but he's not. The reason he suddenly blurts out, Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, today, and forever, is because that is the focus of the faithful teachers that we must follow. That's the focus of the teachers he's talking about in verse 7. What do they do? They preach Christ. In other words, those who would lead us must lead us to Christ or we're not going to follow them anywhere. Amen? I mean, I hope you always stay a part of this fellowship unless we're able to plant a church or something, but if you move off somewhere and go to another church, I beg you, look for leaders in that church who will lead you to Christ. If not, run. And they must not only lead us to Christ as a name, they must lead us to this Christ, to the unchanging Christ of the gospel. Not a man-made Christ of fiction, but the historic biblical Christ, the one preached by the apostles yesterday and by faithful preachers today and will be preached by the faithful forever. That is the focus of this unchanging message that we must hold on to. This is what must shape our lives, church. It's why Paul declares in 1 Corinthians 2 verse 2, writing to these Corinthians, he says to them, I determine to know nothing among you except Jesus Christ and Him crucified. That didn't mean Paul didn't know anything else. He didn't know what the temperature was or what day it was. But it means in his preaching and teaching, he was going to focus so thoroughly upon Christ crucified that that seemed to be his only message. So what do you need from me or Nevin or anyone else who stands in this pulpit? or any would-be leader that you tune into on the Internet. It is this message of Christ and a life that is focused on Christ, showing who He is and what He's done and why it matters according to the Scriptures. And so, if I or anyone else focuses on something else other than Christ, listen, we have robbed you of what you need. Church, You don't need my views on politics. I've got some great ones, by the way. Happy to share them with you in person. But you don't need that. You don't need my social commentary or my funny stories. You don't need a bunch of stories about my personal life or to hear about my pet peeves. No, no, you need Christ. And so when the church is gathered like this, and the Word is opened up, listen, we are going to focus on Christ here. We're not going to spend our time on pageants and plays. And it's not that those things are wrong in and of themselves. There's a place for them someplace perhaps, but not here. We're not going to waste time on life management sermons with advice about four steps to a new you or advice on money management. And again, there is a place for those things, but not here. Here, as we gather week to week, as we worship, as we learn what it means to live to the glory of God, our focus must be Christ. In a very real way, a pastor has one job. That is to give you Christ. To center everything on the unchanging Christ. Why? Because dear one, He and He alone is what you really need. Read it again, verse 8. Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, today, and forever. These leaders are going to come and go. History is going to move along, but Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, today, and forever. In a world that shifts and changes, Christ alone is the immovable rock to which you must anchor your soul. He is the unchanging Savior who ever lives to make intercession for you. Hebrews 7 verse 25. Listen to that again. Hebrews 7 verse 25. Therefore Christ is also able to save forever those who draw near to God through Him, because He is always living to make intercession for them. So the only leaders who can do you any good are those who preach this unchanging gospel. This gospel that focuses on the unchanging Christ and what He has done in His life, death and resurrection. Which is why, by the way, which is why those great teachers from the past can still do you much good. They're not outdated. Think about it. I have a chemistry degree. A chemistry book from 1725 is worthless, pretty much. It won't do you any good today as you try to practice chemistry. A book on computer technology from 1975 is pretty pointless. Those technologies have changed. Our understanding of the atom has changed. New data has come in. And because we live in such a world where those kind of things are changing, we get this silly idea in our head that means theology must change as well. But these things are not true of the gospel because the gospel is anchored in something much deeper and much more true than human wisdom and technology can ever be. The gospel is anchored in the unchanging truth about God in Christ. That's why it can be such an anchor to your soul, especially in such changing times, because it is anchored to the unchanging truth of God. And so, for instance, a book by Jonathan Edwards written in 1725 about God can still do you much good because that truth has not changed. And I have on my shelf books by Jonathan Edwards written around 1725, and they're wonderful. That's also why, church, that's why we don't despair when faithful leaders today die, as all men must die. Our friend Paul Washer nearly died Monday, as many of you know, from a massive heart attack. That would have been sad. I love that brother. He's been greatly used of God in this generation. That would have been sad, but you know what it would not have been? It would not have been a catastrophe for the church. Because every one of us is going to die. I will die. John MacArthur will die. John Piper will die. Timothy Keller will die. Leaders come and go. But if those leaders have faithfully pointed you to Christ, then you will always have Him. And that brings us into this third very important thing. And so in light of our need to remain faithful to the unchanging gospel, Christian, you must refuse to be led astray by any new or different gospel that comes along. You must refuse to be led astray by any new and different teachings that are being proclaimed today. Look at verse 9. Do not be led away by diverse and strange teachings, for it is good for the heart to be strengthened by grace. The New American Standard translates that, do not be carried away by diverse and strange teachings. That word carried away or led away is a word that pictures what happens when you get caught in a sudden flood. You get swept downstream. That is, by the way, why you don't drive your car through flooded streets, right? What are they always telling us? Turn around, don't drown. Well, the same thing happens spiritually to those who subject themselves to false teaching and false teachers. Oh, you think you can handle it, just like you thought you could handle that little trickle of water rushing across the street down there. But it doesn't take much water to float a car. Listen, it doesn't take much heresy to ruin a soul. That is why I speak clearly to warn you about false teachers like Joel Osteen or Joyce Meyer or others. That's why we must be clear about false teaching in a book like The Shack, which so horribly misrepresents God and the gospel, because it matters. These are departures from the historic biblical faith. They may make you feel good, they may even be mixed with some truth, but they are in the end departures from the historic Christian faith. And church, we live in a day when such departures are rampant. They really are a flood. The writer here, in fact, represents that flood using the plural. Notice he says, teachings, plural. Watch out for strange and diverse teachings. Why? Because there are many. There are many false gospels, but there is only one true gospel. There are many wrong roads that lead to destruction, but only one true road that leads to Christ. Enter through the narrow gate, Jesus said, for small is the gate and narrow is the way that leads to life, and few will find it. And so the gospel is one thing. It is the historic truth given by God in the New Testament about Christ. The gospel is one thing, but error is many things. It is anything that departs from that core of historic biblical truth. And so there is a broad diversity in false teaching. Again, listen to Jesus, Matthew 7, 13, "...Enter through the narrow gate, for wide is the gate, and wide is the road that leads to destruction, and there are many who enter by it." Popularity doesn't define the truth of truth, it only defines its popularity. So how do you recognize false teaching? Well, it's anything and everything that departs from the historic gospel. And I wish it was possible for me right now, in just a couple of minutes, to give you a short list of things that you should avoid, but really, really I can't. There are literally too many versions of false teaching out there today for me to even try to count them off to you. Everything from the cults like Jehovah's Witness and Mormonism, to classic liberalism that denies the deity of Christ or the inspiration and infallibility of Scripture. There's the prosperity gospel I've mentioned. There's decisionism. There's the redefinition of sin to fit the sexual revolution today. So how do you recognize false teaching when you hear it? Okay, listen carefully. There's only one way. You recognize false teaching by knowing the truth of the gospel so thoroughly that any departure from that gospel just smells bad. You know, I did not have to teach my kids how to avoid spoiled milk by giving them spoiled milk. I didn't come in one day and say, here, Steph, drink some of this. This is the bad stuff you want to avoid. No, I gave them good milk consistently so that when they actually ran across spoiled milk, they went, eww, oh, dad, something's wrong with this. What's eww? By the way, one way I knew when my daughters had come to a maturing faith was when they did begin to do that with theology. Hey, Dad, my friend was telling me this, but you know, that can't be right, because here's what Scripture says. So notice what he says here. He says, don't be swept away by diverse and strange teachings. What he means by that, don't be swept away by anything that departs from the historic biblical gospel. Anything that is new and different as opposed to that which is faithful and true of God's Word. Listen, in theology there is no such thing as new and improved. Right? I'll say that again, in theology there's no such thing as new and improved. Now, there may be ancient truths that you have never encountered yet, and we're all still learning and need to continue learning, but there are no new truths dreamed up to be added to the gospel. In fact, usually when someone claims to have a new truth, it's just an old heresy that's been repackaged. It departs from the faith once for all delivered to the saints. Paul warned about that. Galatians 1 verse 8, listen to these words, he says, If anyone brings you a different gospel than the one we preach to you, let him be accursed. Have nothing to do with him or his accursed teaching. When someone comes to you with a different gospel, Paul says, run. Likewise, John warns in 2 John verse 10, if anyone comes to you and does not bring this teaching, meaning the ancient gospel about Christ, have nothing to do with him. Or again, Paul, Colossians 2 verse 8, a little longer, he says, See to it that no one takes you captive through philosophy and empty deception, according to the tradition of men, according to the elementary principles of the world, rather than according to Christ. The way you avoid being swept away by false teaching is to so know the truth, this ancient gospel preached by the apostles and faithfully proclaimed throughout history, to so know this truth, that you don't fall for that which is false. So do you? Do you know this gospel? Could you write it down? If an eight-year-old came to you and asked you, what's the gospel? Could you explain it to them? Do you know this gospel well enough to smell sour theology that departs from this gospel? Do your children know this gospel? And if not, how are you going to train them? See, if you don't know it, how will you train them what it is? Now, I would suggest starting with a good catechism. There are many wonderful ones out there. I plan on getting some in here pretty soon and making them available. I would suggest reading the Bible together as a family, but even underneath that, reading the Bible consistently yourself. reading good, solid books that are solidly founded on this historic gospel, studying to know these things? Or how are we doing as a church in doing this? How are we as a church training each other, teaching each other, helping each other to know and hold fast to this faith once for all delivered to the saints? Because that's what we must do. And church, listen, that is going to be important more and more as we move forward in this present culture. There was a time when the church could be a little lax on this. No, not really. No, let me rephrase that. That was just wrong. There was a time when the church thought it could be lax on this because the culture seemed in some ways to reinforce some of the basic message. It really didn't, but we thought it could. We now live in a day when nothing in the culture is reinforcing anything close to these truths. And unless we are very intentional as a church and very intentional as parents and very intentional as Christians to know this truth ourselves and to pass it on to our children and grandchildren, unless we are intentional about that, it will not happen. And so, finally, Look at the end of verse 9. He gives us an example here of what he's talking about. Notice he draws a contrast in those last few lines. He says, "...for it is good..." Don't be led away by false gospel. "...because it is good for the heart to be strengthened by grace, not by foods which have not benefited those devoted to them." Now, what's he doing there? He's making a bit of a contrast between two things. He's contrasting two ways of relating to God, one true and helpful, the other pointless and worthless. The first is the way of grace, focused on the gospel of Christ. By coming to the gospel, I receive the grace of God. Faith comes by hearing, hearing by the word of God. And the grace of God, coming to the gospel, strengthens my heart and brings me to God. The other way is the way of ritual. focused merely on what you do. In their present case, it had to do with eating certain foods ceremoniously. That's what they had gotten into. It had to do with observing certain ceremonies. It was the mere outward working of religion. So here's the question. How can a sinner like me get to know God and learn to walk with God? Does that come by eating certain foods? Does that come by observing certain rituals? No. 1 Corinthians 8, verse 8, "...but food will not commend us to God. We're neither better or worse for eating." Romans 14, 17, "...the kingdom of God is not eating and drinking, but righteousness and peace and joy in the Holy Spirit through the new birth." It's not these outward things that we do. It's not following this trend or that trend or this new teaching or that new teaching. Instead, I must be strengthened by grace. How am I strengthened by grace? Only one way, by trusting in God's promise of grace through the gospel of Christ. It is this ancient gospel preached by the saints of old that brings me God's grace. Ephesians 2, 8 and 9, for it is by grace you have been saved through faith. This is not of yourselves. It is the gift of God, not as a result of works so that no one can boast. Faith, Paul says elsewhere in Romans, comes by hearing and hearing by the word about Christ. And so what must happen is your heart must be strengthened by grace. It must be strengthened by believing and laying hold of this gospel. That's how grace gets in. Through what we would even call the means of grace, we are strengthened, hearing the Word, reading the Bible, praying together, participating in the Lord's Supper in a way that puts the focus on Christ. And what are all these things? All of these things are things that bring us the gospel and point us to Christ. And so God has given us these means that bring us to the gospel and focus on Christ, Christ and Him crucified, Christ the center of this ancient message, because this is what saves us, this is what secures us, and this is what strengthens us to continue to walk faithfully with Him. Church, I commend to you the ancient gospel of Christ. Don't let anything take it out of your hands. Don't let anything become a substitute for it. Don't look anywhere else. But looking again and again to Christ, given in the gospel, as crucified, dead for our sins, raised on the third day for our justification, seated at the Father's right hand, interceding for us, assuring us that as we trust in Him, He will bring us safely home to God's glory. Let's pray. Father, Father, You have called us to this one Lord, this one faith, this one reality that reveals what You have done in history to save flesh and blood sinners like us. There is nowhere else we can look. If we look down inside of ourselves, all we find is sin and rot and despair. If we follow our hearts as the world constantly tells us to do, we end up in desperation, wickedness, depravity, selfishness, depression, distress, anger, fighting. Lord, we must look away from ourselves and away from our own hearts which are filled with sin and look to Christ who is filled with righteousness. And we must be anchored by faith alone to Christ who finished the work of salvation. for any and all who believe in him. So grant us that faith, that hold. God, I would pray that you would help me and Nevin and any other leaders you raise up here and any leaders that will follow us in the future, that you would cause us to be solidly anchored to the gospel. And you would make this church faithful so that if I or any other leader did depart from this gospel, they would not tolerate such a departure, but they would call for the repentance of that leader. And if he did not repent, they would have him removed, not out of bitterness, but out of necessity, that You would make us faithful to the end. Lord, I would pray that You would help every believer here to finish well by holding fast to this faith. And then finally, Lord, I would pray for any here who are not in this faith, who've never turned from their sin and self to trust in Christ, in what He did, and to cast all upon Him, and to become those who are following only Him, that You would grant that grace even now. They've heard the gospel. Now would you let them repent and believe the good news and come running to Him for what only He can give. For Christ's sake, we pray. Amen. Brother, come and lead us as we sing.